Is The Phantom Pain Really Metal Gear Solid 5?

New trailer for a new IP from a new dev… or is Kojima teasing Metal Gear Solid 5 with The Phantom Pain?

The interwebs have been abuzz this weekend over a new trailer shown at the Spike VGAs- for a new game called The Phantom Pain, from Moby Dick Studios. Almost instantly, it seems that the veil has been removed and the game’s true nature has been revealed; many gamers believe that this is actually Metal Gear Solid 5. (Editor’s Note: the game has since been revealed to indeed be Metal Gear Solid V, and will be coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.) Why would they think such a thing? Well, just take a look at the rather damning evidence below.

Dr. Kio Marv

Those who played Metal Gear Solid 2: Solid Snake will remember that Dr. Kio Marv is the scientist who accidentally discovered a bacteria that could produce a form of oil, something the 1990’s Metal Gear world was in dire need of. He was also friends with Dr. Madnar, who newer fans might remember from Metal Gear Solid 4. Raiden spoke of him as the man who gave him his robotics; this would explain where the main character got the prosthetic arm from. This guy definitely has more than a passing resemblance to Kio Marv.

The iconic Metal Gear Solid 3 flowers

In the beginning of The Phantom Pain’s trailer, the main character sees flowers floating above him and reaches for them with his new robotic arm. This is a pretty obvious callback to Naked Snake’s fight with The Boss at the end of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, where the two were surrounded by the same flowers.

Young Psycho Mantis

Metal Gear fans will know that Kojima loves to reference/ flesh out characters as much as possible, such as SIGINT and Para-Medic from Metal Gear Solid 3 being the DARPA Chief and Dr. Clark from the modern-day series. This trailer is full of similar cues, such as this callback to Metal Gear Solid 1, where Snake first got a look at the telepathic/ telekinetic boss Psycho Mantis in an elevator.

Snake?

Ok, it can’t be denied that this dude is dressed in head-to-toe Snake armor. Is he a hallucination? Phantom Eye Syndrome is a known medical condition where when a victim loses an eye, he can still “see” hallucinations where that eye once was. Sounds to us like all or some of these events could be in our hero’s mind. Or maybe he’s still in that coma?

Volgin?

Just after the previous fiery hallucination, we see this image. This guy’s armor looks a lot like Volgin’s from Metal Gear Solid 3, and his imposing physical build matches up.

Yep, that’s Psycho Mantis.

In case you doubted our previous observation, here’s more proof that the small child in the elevator is Psycho Mantis- near the end of the trailer the main character is spotted, and Mantis’ trademark doll levitates with its arms out, in classic Mantis form.

C’mon, this is Snake.

Mullet? Check. Scruffy beard? Check. Wounded eye? Check. If this guy isn’t one of the many Snakes in Metal Gear lore, The Phantom Pain’s protagonist is one of the biggest rip-offs we’ve seen.

The Phantom Pain? Read between the lines…

If you read between the lines, or the notches in The Phantom Pain’s logo, you’ll find something interesting. As the trailer suggests, if you “Open Your Eyes!”, you’ll see that Metal Gear Solid V fits pretty perfectly in there.

Two final thoughts: the Moby Dick developer’s website was only created six days ago, and Konami representatives were photographed at the event in The Phantom Pain T-shirts. Beyond that, Kojima’s been known for toying with fans of the series with mysterious trailers in the past. It’s almost certain that this game is either Metal Gear Solid 5 or the recently revealed Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes.

UPDATE: Snake’s voice actor, David Hayter, just sent out this tweet regarding The Phantom Pain. Make of it what you will.

Related Posts

About Jason Bakker

Jason Bakker is the Editor-in-Chief and founder of Metal Arcade. He loves art, music, weight lifting, audio mixing, gaming and gadgets. Feel free to follow him on Twitter. If you like metal, check out his band Volharding on iTunes, Spotify and Facebook.

This is a very good well thought out and possibly the most exciting trailer I’ve seen in awhile. I saw this trailer on another website but the breakdown of the trailer here proves it’s a Metal Gear game. So many references to Metal Gear that it would be shocking if it wasn’t MG. I for one can’t wait to check out all these new Metal Gear games thank you Kojima-san!